Vision

BYOU or “Bring Your Own Utensils” is a campaign we ran in April 2022 that aimed to reduce plastic waste from our school’s central source of single-use utensils, the cafeteria. We had volunteers from our team stand at the cafeteria and hand out raffle tickets for those who bring their own utensils from home instead of taking plastic utensils. Every Friday, a prize draw would take place and those who brought utensils would be eligible to win. We hoped to make sustainable habits fun and easy for our school community and eventually phase out plastic utensils all together.

Action

Our cafeteria shut down due to a staffing issue, but we had to persevere and continue the initiative through our in-school store, “The Colt’s Zone”. This was a successful change in location, as reusable utensils were given away and several students who buy lunch from there brought their own utensils. Unfortunately we were not able to collect exact numbers for this, as lunch is rush hour for The Colt’s Zone, and sales happen quickly, employees were unable to tally up the exact amounts. But, there was a good amount of sustainable utensils given out regarding how many plastic utensils they had before and after the campaign.

Reflection & Celebration

Although BYOU went through some structural changes because our cafeteria was shut down, it was ultimately a successful campaign. Many people showed interest in what we were doing, and we made an impact due to our constant work towards perfecting and making this campaign reach as many people as possible. Our team did the best we could to make this possible, but sadly some things are just out of our reach. Overall this was a great project that almost everyone in our team contributed their time towards, especially the executive group.
This event has made a great impact in our school community, and we hope to do many more similar events in the future! We thank LSF for this fantastic opportunity and encouragement throughout this journey.

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